Swollen Knee

[Charlie Horse]

It'll be ok. One day while he's eating, an alien will burst out of that knee, scream, and slither away. The real problem, then, is what if the alien comes back larger and feeling murderous? Dont laugh. It happens.

[Taffy]

Charlie Horse - you have a twisted sense of humor. I can hardly wait to meet you

[joecool911]

My guy doesn't seem to favor his leg or pussy foot around. He still runs and bucks periodically.

---

It'll be ok. One day while he's eating, an alien will burst out of that knee, scream, and slither away. The real problem, then, is what if the alien comes back larger and feeling murderous? Dont laugh. It happens.

You been watching too much Star Trek.

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

As long as there are no killer synthetic humans, im good.

[Nanno]

Yeesh... this thread makes me want to start watching Pac-Man's knees. He grew faster than I thought possible, and now he's overweight to boot! All he does is eat and loaf around with his girls (although Phil's been taking him hiking a bit lately). I think I might start training him to drive soon just to give him some exercise. I'd love to have him run alongside my horse or bike as Cuzco used to do, but I'm afraid he's too attached to the other goats to willingly run off with me by himself (especially if I'm on a horse--he wants NOTHING to do with horses!). I've always been concerned that too much growth too early could be hard on the joints and this thread reinforces that fear. I'll have to figure out how to get Pac-Man to eat less and move more so he's fit instead of FAT.

[Saltlick]

I am having the worst time with my goats lately, my heart is breaking. Django's knee is still swollen, exactly the same, yet still no pain. Two days ago when I showed up to feed them, Putnik did not come to the gate, nor was he calling - my heart stopped for a second!! Finally he slowly walked up, in a lot of pain. His left back leg!!! He was limping so badly!! There is just very slight swelling up in the mid-thigh area on the outside, and he freaks out if I try to touch it, even gently. I am seriously hoping he just twisted it somehow, but it's day three and he's still limping and walking very slowly (although a tiny bit better) - I'm worried he may have a fracture... How? I have no idea, they were in the pen. The only thing I can think of is he and Django sometimes hook each other's back legs with their horns. I'm leaving in a couple of days for two months and my heart is heavy... I can't believe all of this bad luck right before I leave. I really can't.

[Nanno]

I'm so sorry about your bad luck lately. It's so unnerving when it happens right before you leave town (I know--it's happened to me a few times with horses). However, I'm sure that if you've found someone caring and responsible to look after your critters for you, that person will take just as good care of them as you would.

I sincerely hope Putnik improves in the next couple of days so you can have some peace of mind. It sounds like there's not much you can do for it except give it time to heal. Even if it were a fracture, that location would be impossible to splint, and the fact that he's walking on it is a good sign. He might improve a lot faster with an anti-inflammatory though. Banamine or Bute can be gotten from a vet, and if you can't get to a vet, plain old aspirin could still help a lot. You might try ice packs on the swollen area as well. I hope to hear good news soon!

[Saltlick]

Thanks Nanno. I may still have some Banamine from last year, injectable, if I can remember the dosage. He hates those injections so much though, I wonder if it might cause him to "jump' and tweak his leg more, but worth a try. The good news is today he even put a front hoof up on me (something he does when he's chewing his cud and wants to try and get on my lap like when he was a baby), which means he was standing on three legs including the injured one. I figured the same thing about a splint, so I didn't take him to a vet, and if it's just a pulled muscle or something then time will heal it. It's all so strange, my cat also came in with an injured back leg about 6 weeks ago, limping very badly, but it wasn't swelling and he was eating, so I gave it a few days and it started to get better and he's totally back to normal. It comes in threes, right? So I hope we should be fine for a while!